The Town of Odyssey

Los Angeles (E! Online) - As it steps into the future, Disney is borrowing a page from its past.
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The house that the mouse built will be returning to its hand-drawn roots with The Frog Princess, slated to hit theaters in 2009, Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday.

Set in New Orleans' French Quarter, the feature-length musical will follow in the tradition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio in that its creators will rely solely on drawings rather than on the computer-generated imagery that has become the industry standard.

Taking a cue from its more modern predecessors, however, The Frog Princess will feature songs by 17-time Oscar nominee
Randy Newman, who most recently was up for Best Original Song for "Our Town," from the CGI-fueled hit Cars. The singer-songwriter won the Oscar in 2002 for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters Inc.

"We're really proud and excited about this," John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Disney and Pixar, said at the company's annual shareholders meeting. Disney snatched up Pixar Animation Studios in January 2006 for $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction, although the Bay Area-based Pixar still operates as a separate unit.

"Like many of Disney's most popular fairytales, it has elements of magic, fantasy, adventure, heart, humor and music," Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said. "The film's New Orleans setting and strong princess character give the film lots of excitement and texture."

The story, which will feature the usual whimsical Disney touches, such as a "soulful singing alligator" and voodoo magic, was created by John Musker and Ron Clements, the minds behind The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and will be produced by Disney animation veteran Peter Del Vecho.

The fairytale's heroine, Maddy, will also be the first African-American princess in the Disney cartoon canon. Meaning, not only is Disney making a significant step in reflecting the diversity of its audience, but Maddy will soon be joining Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan and the others on a lunchbox or t-shirt near you, as well.

Whether Disney's return to the drawing board is the start of a trend remains to be seen. Lasseter said nothing Thursday about the studio planning a lineup of hand-drawn projects, but if the nostalgia factor runs high in 2009, you can bet other animation houses will want in on the old-school action.

Audiences will still be able to get their CGI fix many times over before the 2-D Frog Princess meets her prince, of course. Disney's Meet the Robinsons, is due out Mar. 30, DreamWorks Animation's Shrek The Third lumbers into theaters May 18 and Bee Movie is on tap for Nov. 2, Pixar's Ratatouille is slated for June 28…and that's just an incomplete list from this year.

Disney's return to hand-drawn animation is also going to require that the company hire more artists who can wield a pencil and ink as easily as the current crop can navigate a Mac.

• Miscellaneous. Some cool music. I really liked the Almost There (especially the meaning behind it). The story has some interesting aspects, there's a rather sad part, with scattered humor mixed throughout.

• Voodoo. Arrg! People, beware, if you're going to watch this movie, don't expect it to be very promoting of Christianity. The "bad guy" is a witch doctor, and he sings a long titled Friends on the Other Side. Several scenes involve demons, occult or other such things. "Shadows" come to find the main characters. The characters go to find a "good voodoo lady", and she has lots of occultic things around for "good" reasons. I could name other things, but you get the idea.
  I'm not sure where this fits in with other Disney magic. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc., all involved witches or spells, but this seemed to make it real. They didn't have someone eating a poisoned apple, they had people calling on demons and selling souls.
• Some immodesty, slight language, etc., but the above is what ruined the movie.

American Eagle wrote:Some immodesty

Termite wrote:

American Eagle wrote:Some immodesty

....How is there immodesty in a Disney movie?